A Holy Week Prayer in Response to Gun Violence

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Left: U.S. Representatives Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) & Rep. George Santos (R-NY) wear AR15 lapel pins. Right:Covenant School student bused to safety, Monday, March 27, 2023. (Nicole Hester/The Tennessean via AP) 


Well God, 

Here we are again.  

We see the photos. 

The news torments us 

as it reels through our minds

long after the episode is over. 

The anguish chiseled on parents’ faces. 

The terror of traumatized children. 

Police cars, not mini vans, 

pouring into the school parking lot. 

The slaughter of the innocents. 

Again. And again. And again. 


Meanwhile, select U.S. State representatives, 

safe and secure in the halls of Congress

protected by heavily armed guards, 

they wear lapel pins with AR15s.

It’s their right, they say

To own these weapons of mass destruction 

For sport. For fun. For so-called protection.  


But who is protecting the children? 

When they dropped their babies off at school, 

parents only worried about the normal things.  

Did you remember your homework?

Do you have your lunch? 

Do you remember who's bringing you home, or to soccer practice, or ballet? 

Did you study for that math test? 

Let’s practice your spelling words on the way to school. 

Before the school bell rang. 

Before the gun shots fired. 

Before the jaws of grief clamp down, 

parents had the luxury

of worrying about normal things. 


Then the shots fired. 

In the flash of a second, normal collapsed

and fell dead. 

Children died. 

Teachers died.

Dreams died.

Hope died.

And the only question left to ask is: Why? 

Why the violence? 

Why the hate and fear? 

Why the stubborn refusal to protect our children?


The lawmakers proudly wearing 

AR15 pins on their lapels are quick to say,

"It’s not the guns,

"It’s the people behind the guns. 

"It’s mental illness. 

"Still, it’s too bad about the children," they say. 

"Such a shame, tragic really. 

"Sending thoughts and prayers." 


Meanwhile, normal has transformed into 

grotesque images of blood and torn flesh. 

Normal is now children paralyzed with anxiety.

Normal is now active shooter safety drills in schools. 

Babies learning to take cover from bullets. BABIES!

Normal is now impending doom and death,

Are our children entering a school or a crime scene? 



But select members of Congress have their pins and their rights.

They feel no guilt, no shame. 

“After all, It’s the people not the guns,” they say.

"There’s no blood on our hands," they say. 

Never mind the facts and statistics, 

--where people have easy access to bullets and weapons, 

more people suffer needless, horrific death. 

It’s a verifiable fact. It is the truth.* 

But the select few want their pins and their guns. 

And they happily offer up our children as a sacrifice. 


So God, how can we cope

in this world of pain?

How do we stop the fear and hate

that ravages our nation? 

How do we share the truth that can heal? 

How do we make the insanity stop? 


God, help us. Teach us. Hold us. 

The shots have sounded again. 

Let them wake us

from the deep slumber of apathy.

Wake us, Holy One. 

Rise within us until we are strong, 

strong enough to stand

against selfishness and greed. 

Wake us, Holy One. 

Rise within us until we are strong enough

To make those who wear AR15s

slung across their shoulders

or neatly pinned on their crisply ironed lapels — to stop. Just STOP. 


Stop lying. 

Stop altering facts to gain political power. 

Stop blaming mental illness.

Stop the hate. 

Stop the fear-mongering.

Just please, for the sake of our children 

STOP, LOOK and LISTEN. 


Listen to the one who said,

“Turn the other cheek.”

Listen to the one who said,

“The greatest command is to love”

Look to the one who said, 

“Peace I give to you.”

Look to the one who said, 

“No greater love has one than this,

to lay down your life for a friend.”

Look at the one who willingly

embraced human evil

to reveal the power of love, 


Oh God, lead us from

the slavery of gun violence

To your promised land 

where we can live in peace

and our babies can go to school

And our parents, teachers and children

can enjoy the luxury of worrying

about normal things 

when they drop their children off at school. 


We can’t do it alone. 

We need Your Spirit to reveal what we cannot. 

Help us all as we enter Holy Week

to stop, look and listen 

To your voice calling us from death to life. Amen.


*https://www.healthdata.org/acting-data/gun-violence-united-states-outlier

**Photo credit of student in the bus: Nicole Hester/The Tennessean via AP

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